Monday, July 23, 2012

I ordered a cheap light stand, shoot-through umbrella, and an umbrella adapter to learn how to use off-camera flash. After my order arrived it sat on a chair unopened until this evening (all because one of our cats is using the chair for his naps and I don't want to disturb him). Finally, after getting the umbrella set up in the backyard I took Sadie outside and had her pose for me when I fired off a few shots.

Of the pictures I took, I like this one best:

I cropped the image a bit, made some cosmetic fixes, and added a vignette. I have a lot to learn about how to use an umbrella; it'll be awhile before I feel comfortable enough to use it in a session.

(Shot with the Nikon D300 using the 50mm f/1.8 lens, SB-800 flash, and two Pocket Wizards; program mode; camera set shutter speed at 1/60th second, aperture at f/5, at ISO 200; auto white balance; normal JPG.)

Friday, July 6, 2012

In the late afternoon I was standing just outside the back door of the house when Sadie walked up and paused at the door. I was thinking she would either: (1) join me outside, or (2) stand her ground at the threshold as I held the door open waiting for her to pass through. She chose (2).

So as she stood there I thought, "Hey...I like the way she looks while standing against the dark interior of the house. Maybe I can get a shot or two of this." I went inside to get my camera (Sadie twisted her head around to see what I was doing), grabbed a handful of dog kibble, then stepped back outside and got her attention by talking to her and handing her food.

I had a different picture in mind when I started this exercise, but Sadie would not open her eyes wide enough. Instead, I tried to get her actually doing something, instead of my usual staring-back-at-the-camera shot:

I played around with this in Lightroom; I tried different black-and-white treatments but none seemed quite right. I left the picture in color and just removed most of the color from her red tag bag, and added some sharpening around her eyes. Then i added a vignette to isolate her face further.

She's a goofball off-camera, but so well-behaved while I was working with her.

Josie Bean is Bertie's close companion.

She's showing her rooing abilities -- she's good at it.

(Shot with the Nikon D300 using the 50mm f/1.8 lens; aperture-priority, with aperture set to f/2.8; camera chose shutter speed of 1/320 second and 1/200 second at ISO 400; center-weighted metered; shade white balance; shot in RAW.)